Thursday 28th of March 2024, 09:12 CET
Turkey: No Death Penalty for Öcalan
October 4, 2002
Guardian

Written by Owen Bowcott
Posted by HW on March 27, 2024

The death sentence imposed by a Turkish court on the jailed Kurdish rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was formally lifted yesterday to ensure that the country keeps its promise to the EU to abolish capital punishment and improve human rights.
The announcement by Ankara"s state security court came ahead of next week"s meeting of the EU body which assesses progress made by candidate countries for EU membership. No date has been set for Turkey"s accession.

The government fought a protracted parliamentary battle in the summer to pass reforms to meet the EU standard of human rights. In August, the death penalty was removed and the country"s Kurdish minority was, in theory, given the right to broadcast and teach in its language.

Turkey last executed a prisoner in 1984. The sentence imposed on Ocalan, leader of the separatist Kurdistan Workers" party (PKK), had been delayed pending an appeal to the European court of human rights in Strasbourg.

Despite being held in solitary confinement as the only prisoner on Imrali island, Ocalan remains a pivotal figure for the Kurdish opposition. Turkish prosecutors blame him for 30,000 deaths during a PKK campaign for independence.

The guerrilla leader, known to his followers as "Apo" (uncle in Kurdish), controlled the 16-year-long insurrection from across the border in Syria for most until he was forced to flee in the late 1990s after diplomatic pressure from Turkey. He was kidnapped by Turkish special forces in Kenya in 1999 and confined to Imrali, where he ordered a ceasefire which has largely held for the past three years. The relatives of victims who died during the fighting have called for him to be hanged.

Lifting his death penalty may enrage the rightwing MHP nationalist party in the disintegrating governing coalition. A general election is due next month.

The death penalty remains a fiercely contested issue in a country that hanged its prime minister after a military coup in 1960. The death sentence on Ocalan, and that imposed on about 20 other prisoners, will be commuted to life in prison.

Mark Muller, the London barrister who represents Ocalan at Strasbourg, welcomed the decision to commute the sentence. "I hope it heralds further reforms in Turkey," he said.
 
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